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off topic - as long as the bees are clustered and there isn't much to do I guess a little off topic chatter won't offend anyone too much.

So how do you guys keep your chickens safe from predators. My guys love to graze, the first thing they do out of the chicken tractor is go for anything green to eat. Then they scratch for bugs the rest of the day. So I hate to keep them all caged up all the time - unfortunately the bobcats and coyotes hate it too.

No eggs right now - all my layers got eaten by the bobcat (who no longer lives in this county). Have 25 Oct. 1 hatched colored egg layers growing up though. Just hate seeing them living in a cage with no where to scratch and nothing green to eat.

We keep live traps in use year round. If we catch one of my momma's cats or one of the dogs we let them out with no harm done. If it is a predador we kill them. We do not have many skunks around and so far have not caught one in the traps. Another thing that helps is closing the door as soon as the sun goes down to the coop. I also keep real game chickens. My main problem is keeping the Cocks from getting to each other. I do not fight them but I raise them for 3 people who do. They are great egg layers and they fend for themselves pretty well.

My father has Japs, cochins, belgium(milluer flora(sp)). We aslo have just got started in Quail(bobwhite and cortnix), pheasant(picking up eggs Tues.), guineas(lost several to hawks this year and set us way back). The cortnix are also known as pharaoh quail. We have the A&M cortnix which are white( the ones we got were culled out because they had brown spots). They are geneticly spliced with chickens to make them much larger and meater.

I used to have a little of just about everything, but that was a long time ago. I had Speckeled Sussex and all kinds of polish (with top hats) and black faced white spanish and frizzles and turkens and favorells. They were fun. Seems out here only the hardy survive the predators though.

&gt;We aslo have just got started in Quail(bobwhite and cortnix), pheasant(picking up eggs Tues.),

At one time or another I have raised about every kind of game bird or chicken, some exotic birds too. Down to two African Grey Parrots now.

Bobwhites are fairly easy to raise as are Ringneck pheasants. The main thing to prepare for is their flightiness. If at all possible strech a tarp under your roof to cushion them when they jump. Always let them know that you are coming, even then they will still jump when they first see you. A solid roof is better than a wire roof and a tarp will keep them from splitting their heads open, I have sewn a lot of caps back down, they don't bleed much, but it dosen't do them any good having their skulls sticking out.

&gt;The cortnix are also known as pharaoh quail. We have the A&M cortnix which are white( the ones we got were culled out because they had brown spots). They are geneticly spliced with chickens to make them much larger and meater.

I had the smaller brown ones. It was neet that they would lay one or two eggs per day. They were very prolific and I had a fair market for them, but if I had it to do over I wouldn't have them again. Perhaps the larger white ones will do better for you.

Look into raising the Lady Amhurst and Golden Pheasants. There is a good market for them with the taxidermists, the trick is to keep them from ruining their long tailfeathers. They are actually easier to raise than Ringnecks but they are not as prolific.

I raised some ringnecks. They were insane and scalping was my biggest problem. I never had a the tarp.

&gt;Look into raising the Lady Amhurst and Golden Pheasants. There is a good market for them with the taxidermists, the trick is to keep them from ruining their long tailfeathers. They are actually easier to raise than Ringnecks but they are not as prolific.

I had goldens for a while. They are not nearly as hardy as the ringnecks, but they sure are calmer and prettier.

The cortnix grow very fast. In six weeks from hatching they start laying. The bobwhites have to be 6 monthes of age before they start laying. We are getting golden pheasants soon, they are not laying good for the gent we get eggs from. We are getting his extra eggs left from his orders. Bobwhite eggs are costing us 3 cents each. The problem is we never know when we are going to get eggs. He calls and we go pick them up. This last set of eggs we got did not hatch well. His did not hatch good either so he did not have enough for order and bought most of our hatchlings. We are using the greenhouses for pens. They have been growing up for years. We have been cutting everything down to the point we can get the netting over them. The guy that raises the pheasants and quail uses netting with no problems. He said the key to raising pheasants is for them to have cover and alot of room per bird. We are planning on putting 100 pheasants into a 24 X 96 greenhouse. We have thought of splitting the greenhouse so we could use it for both type of pheasants but there is a much bigger market for ringnecks.

We have a farmers market that I plan on selling all my farm products. We have done good sell garden type produce. I plan on selling hen and quail eggs. I also plan on selling chicks of every bird we have except the game chickens. I am thinking by mid summer we should have over enough eggs from the cortnix to pickle. I am thinking that the eggs in the off season will be used for pickling and hatching or selling hatching eggs in the spring.

I do not like eggs so I have 3 recipes that I am going to try. I have a few people that are going to be my testers. I hope that they like them all so I can have a couple of flavors without adding the hot ones so I can get a good variety. Both recipes I got say to boil the eggs then to soak them in vinegar to disolve the shell then you peel the inner shell then pack them in with the spices.

I think I ate quail eggs in China. I think they were boiled in vinagre, maybe in their jars. The shells were dissolved pretty much, but still on, both inner and outer, which was so dissolved people just popped them in their mouths as is, if I remember right.